Shark: Season 1

There is a type of television series that seems to never go out of style; courtroom dramas. From ‘The Defenders’ to ‘Perry Mason’ all the way up to ‘Law & Order’ people just love watching the legal process played out. That is as long as you are watching from the comfort of your living room and the defendant’s table in court. This fascination with the legal manipulations and machinations of lawyers has resulted in just about every conceivable variation of legal drama imaginable. The field is rich with potential though and it appears new slants on old themes will ensure a show of this form in every television season at least for the foreseeable future. In 2006 an attempt was made to provide a fresh twist that had the right idea but alas met with cancellation after only two seasons. That series was ‘Shark’ which originally aired on the very crime oriented CBS network. Most lawyer shoes are built around a premise that forced a viewpoint. The protagonist was either a defense attorney of a prosecutor. The interesting idea utilized here was to take an extremely successful criminal defense lawyer and turn him into an assistant District attorney. I cannot recall such a unique vantage point being attempted prior to this series. Add to this a truly talented cast and some thoughtful teleplays and the result was very good television. Unfortunately as is often the case the network moved the series from a time slot were it was working out to one that put it between two very popular shows and the series dropped in the ratings. When disrupted by the infamous writer’s strike the series suffered a one-two punch that it was unable to recover from and cancellation quickly followed. It never had an opportunity to fully explore the potential inherent in its premise and construction.

Previously the series creator, Ian Biederman, worked as executive producer for ‘Crossing Jordan’ with some dabbling in the other perennial TV favorite, the medical show care of his involvement in episodes of ‘Chicago Hope’. He seems to be the kind of creative mind that enjoys turning the tenants of a genre around on itself. In this case the story follows Sebastian Stark (James Woods), who has the very well earned nick name of ‘Shark’. This is because of his record of being practically unbeatable in the court room; able to get just about anyone off. As he stated in one episode, if he defended Jesus Christ religion would have been very different. He is the head of his own firm that brings in unbelievable amounts of revenue making Stark an independently wealthy man, well able to afford the extravagant life style he so blatantly enjoys. The pilot episode nicely lays out the character modification. After all, why would a man with billable hours on a single case exceeding anything a civil service position could earn in a year. In this episode Stark was doing what he does best; getting someone with more money than credibility off for the crime of physically abusing his wife. Shortly after the man is released Stark receives a call to go to his client’s home. He just brutally beat his wife to death. This hits Stark like the proverbial ton of bricks awakening his long dormant conscience. Adding greatly to his funk is the fact that his daughter, Julie (Danielle Panabaker), is about to turn 16 and has to decide whether to live with him in Las Angeles of move in presently with her mother and move to New York. Considering Stark’s perchance for the freewheeling life the smart money is on him losing his daughter.

Just when thing look the bleakest for Stark he gets a very unusual offer. District Attorney Jessica Devlin (Jeri Ryan) has been charged by the Mayor Manuel Delgado (Carlos Gómez) to create special unit to prosecute elite crimes. Their mandate would encompass defendants with extraordinary financial resources able to hire high price lawyers, just like Stark. After a little though he goes for it even though he prefers to ‘eat prosecutors for breakfast’ and joining their ranks would deprive him of his ‘major source of fiber’. Stark is given a group of associates who had some political mark or another and the unit is formed. Raina Troy (Sophina Brown) is the crusader of the group she has a unbounded passion for justice which is frequently in direct opposition to Stark’s overwhelming need to win at all costs. There is Casey Woodland (Sam Page) a Senator’s son who could easily have a nice place in corporate law and a volunteer to work in the unit, Madeleine Poe (Sarah Carter); beautiful, smart and with an ambition rivaling Stark’s own. After losing his job for planting evidence against a cop killer Stark hires former LAPD officer Isaac Wright (Henry Simmons) as a special investigator for his unit.

What made the series so much fun is the swagger that only an actor as commanding as Woods can bring to his role. You easily believe him as Stark; a man with his own high tech mock courtroom in his extremely well appointed home. This room not only has ultra modern biometric equipment but has memobilia like the jury box used in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Woods is able to play a man that is so much bigger than life than completely change gears to play the concerned father worried about his teen daughter. I keeping with the modern trend there was a significant amount of time filling in the personal stories of the central characters. The writers never let this aspect of the production overwhelm the true purpose; taut courtroom drama. When this is played against the morality play of a man making a major change in the direction of his life the result deserved better that it received from the network.

Stark’s Cutthroat Manifesto

Trial is War. Second place is death.

Truth is relative. Pick one that works.

In a jury trial, there are only twelve opinions that matter and yours is not one of them